The Colas c21.61

c21.61

It was under Biṭṭiga Viṣṇu-Vardhana (1100—1152)¹¹⁵ that the Hoysaḷa attained a really prominent position. The title ‘Taḷakāḍu-goṇḍa’ is first applied to him in an inscription dated A.D. 1116, and in the same year he is described as ruling in Taḷakāḍu and Kōlāla (Kōlār), over the whole of Gangavāḍi as far as Kongu.¹¹⁶ The Bēlūr copper-plate grant (A.D. 1117) records that ‘he first acquired the wealth of the Hoysaḷa rule or dominions; that, pushing on so far as to take Taḷakāḍ, he was the first to promote the race of Yadu to the rule of the dominions of the Gangas; and that he burnt the capital city of the Gangas.’ It is thus clear that Viṣṇu-Vardhana inherited some limited territory round about Bēlūr and that, in the first five or six years of his rule, he greatly extended his sway by the conquest of the Gangavāḍi province.